


Our Pasts are Written in Pencil

by ThatBoat



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Post-Chinatown, finale rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 10:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17139917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatBoat/pseuds/ThatBoat
Summary: With Rufus lost in Chinatown, Lucy makes a major decision to save her friend and the world from Rittenhouse.





	Our Pasts are Written in Pencil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Haylieng](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Haylieng).



Our Pasts are Written in Pencil.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a Secret Santa gift for Haylieng. Merry Christmas, girl. I hope you enjoy. 

As with all fan fiction, I don't own these characters but I wrote a story with them anyway.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The team is stunned as a second lifeboat appears in the silo of the bunker. As Future Lucy and Wyatt emerge, Flynn just stands in awe. Future Lucy walks with determination over to Flynn, and indelicately pushes a second journal into his chest. She then marches over to Present Lucy, and looks her intensely in the eye.

“It doesn’t get any better, I know you have been considering it and you know what you need to do. It’s the only way to end this.”

“Lucy, we need to go, we’ve been here too long” Future Wyatt mutters from the lifeboat.

With that Future Lucy turns, climbs back up the stairs and without any good-bye they close the door and jump.

 

“Do what? Lucy what is she talking about, what do you need to do?” Wyatt asks, confused and concerned.

Lucy turns on her heel without answering him and storms off to the room she’s been sharing with Flynn. Wyatt looks to go after her and Flynn speaks up.

“No, I’ve got this.”

Wyatt nods as Flynn follows Lucy. He stops at the door and although it’s his room too, gently knocks on the door. Lucy doesn’t answer and Flynn cracks open the door. He sees her sitting in the chair with her head in her hands.

“Lucy.” He says her name, accent thicker than usual.

She looks up at him, eyes pleading, and Flynn slips inside the room closing the door behind him. He carefully approaches her and she looks as broken as she did in the Chinatown alleyway. He kneels down in front of her so they are at eye level and places his right hand on her left knee.

“Lucy.” He says again. “I know she gave me the journal. I know I could read it, find out exactly what you are thinking right now, but I don’t want to do it that way. Not anymore. I want to hear it from you.”

 

Tears form in the corners of Lucy’s eyes. She takes a deep breath, releases it, and says in a low cracking voice. “I need to go to 1783, I need to go back and kill John Rittenhouse.”

“Lucy. If…if you do that you will erase yourself from history.”

“I need to erase myself from history. My family...from history.”

Flynn removes his hand from Lucy’s knee and wipes the tears away from Lucy’s eyes with his thumb before resting his hands on the sides of her arms.

“There has to be something else, you will lose everything.”

“Flynn, I have already lost everything. My sister, my mom. My job, we have altered history so much…all of my research, all of my knowledge…it’s barely relevant anymore.”

Lucy looks down, takes another deep breath, and looks back up at Flynn with a determined look.

“It’s the only way.”

Flynn looks at Lucy intensely. “Then I’m going too.”

Lucy shakes her head, “Flynn no. Flynn…”

He cuts her off, “I have nothing left either, my family? Also gone. My job? I’m a terrorist. Lucy, you are the only person I have left in this world and you don’t have to do this alone…you don’t have to...”

With that Lucy cuts him off with a gentile kiss and Flynn doesn’t know how to react. After a second Lucy pulls her head back and stares at him. Flynn slowly cracks a smile and kisses Lucy again. Slowly moving his hands into her hair, he deepens the kiss before breaking it and resting his forehead against hers.

“Are you sure about this Garcia?” Lucy whispers.

“Lucy, I have never been more sure. You asked me why I’m here…this is why. You Lucy, I am here because of you.”

Lucy exhales. “Well, let’s go back out there. They will never let us do this, Garcia, if anyone knows about this they will try to stop us. We’ll have to leave in the middle of the night.”

Flynn nodded and followed her out to the common area of the bunker.

 

The rest of the team was sitting around the living room and looked up with concern when Lucy joined them. Flynn walked into the kitchen and prepared Lucy a cup of tea, something to bring her comfort as she put on a brave face for the others. The first one to speak to her was Wyatt.

“Lucy, what was all that about what do you have to do?”

Lucy looked up to him with a tight smile, “We have to save Rufus and end Rittenhouse.”

“Is that what is in the journal they handed Flynn, instructions on how to fix this?” Jiya asked.

Flynn walked back into the room and handed Lucy the cup of tea before sitting on the arm of the sofa next to Lucy. “Yeah” He lied. “The journal is vague, but there are some clues about where in history we can fix all this and bring Rufus back.”

“Is there anything we can do? Any improvements to the lifeboat that the journal hints at?” Connor added.

Flynn looked down at Lucy and then at Connor. “The only thing mentioned is the fourth seat and that was already added.”

Wyatt nods. “Well that’s great then, so as soon as Lucy figures out where in history we need to go…we can jump there and bring back Rufus!”

“That’s the plan.” Flynn replied, while Lucy just sat there silent, staring into her cup.

 

They sat there, entertaining ideas the team had for places in time Lucy could check and after an hour Jiya yawned. She was ready for bed after the emotionally trying day. As Jiya excused herself, Lucy stood and gave her a tight hug, which Jiya took as a comforting gesture although Lucy knew it meant goodbye. Wyatt raised an eyebrow.

“Lucy is everything okay?” He stood and moved toward her as Flynn watched him cautiously from the arm of the sofa.

“Yes, Wyatt. Everything is fine. Today has just been...hard”

“Luce, you know you can talk to me about anything...” He lowered his voice as he noticed he was being watched by Flynn. “I meant what I said earlier, Lucy. I love you and I’ll never hurt you again, I won’t let you down…I can’t...I can’t let Rufus down.”

Wyatt looked at Lucy with pleading eyes and she reached out and touched his hand.

“I know, Wyatt. I believe you.” She looked down and sighed knowing this was the last conversation they were ever going to have.

Flynn cleared his throat, “I uh...I am going to head off to my room for the night. I will see you guys…um later.” Flynn then walked back to his and Lucy’s room giving her space and privacy to say her goodbye.

Wyatt raised his eyebrows and gave Flynn a slightly sarcastic wave. He had a feeling that Flynn seemed a little off tonight, but again he always thought Flynn was a little off and attributed some of it to the fact that Flynn may have overheard some of his and Lucy’s earlier conversation.

“Wyatt” Lucy muttered, regaining Wyatt’s attention. “I care about you, so much…and a lot has happened and this environment, being at war, jumping though time, Jessica coming back, it’s so much. Now Rufus, it just...I just. It’s not the right time and I don’t know if we just missed our window, if Hollywood was it and this was never destined to be…I appreciate how you cared about me Wyatt, all this time you always tried to keep me safe. I have to keep myself safe though, my heart safe. When Jessica came back, and I know it wasn’t your fault…I know you didn’t want to hurt me. But I got hurt…”

“I’m sorry, Lucy...”

“I know you are. I’m sorry too and I’m sorry things aren’t different, I’m sorry I can’t reciprocate. Right now, we have to save Rufus and after that I don’t know what happens.” Lucy frowns and Wyatt squeezes her hand.

Wyatt then turns to leave as Lucy quickly grabs him for a hug. “Goodnight, Wyatt”

Wyatt hugs her back, broken hearted and slightly confused.

“Goodnight, Lucy.”

 

The door to Flynn and Lucy’s room creaks open and Flynn looks up from laying on his bed and reading a book. Lucy slides in and closes the door behind her, walks over to Flynn and sits on the side of the bed. She goes to explain “Garcia...”

“It’s okay. I don’t need to know. You guys are close, you had something, you are leaving him behind. That’s between you two and you don’t have to explain it to me. You never have to explain yourself to me.”

Lucy removed Flynn’s book from his hand, and placed it on his nightstand before laying down next to him with her head on his chest. Flynn took a deep breath; all this contact was new to him. For the past four years he has gone without any caring touch from anyone, and in the course of a day the woman who saved him, who gave him hope and a reason to live, kissed him, is lying next to him, and is about to delete herself from history as they walk into the unknown together. He feels overcome by emotion but holds back his tears. He doesn’t want to let her know how scared he is, he needs to be strong for her. He sets the alarm on his watch for 2:30am, turns off his reading light, wraps his arms around her, and falls asleep.

 

Lucy springs awake from the alarm on Flynn’s watch. She nudges him awake and he startles.

“Garcia, it’s me. Garcia, it’s time.”

He rubs his eyes and looks down, part of him is surprised to see her still lying next to him in his bed. He touches her face and she looks at him questioning.

“Are you still sure you want to do this?”

He kisses her gently and she returns the gesture.

“Let’s go” he replies, “but I have a stop to make before 1983.”

Together they climb into the lifeboat, Flynn kicks the stairs away and closes the door.

Lucy straps herself into her seat and Flynn opens the journal, reading Future Lucy’s instructions on how to pilot the time machine.

“So where are we going? What stop do you need to make?” Lucy asks as Flynn punches a destination into the lifeboat’s navigation.

“1965, if you are deleting yourself then I am too. Lorena doesn’t deserve the heartbreak and my mother and half-brother deserve a shot at an easier life.”

Lucy reaches over, grabs, and squeezes Flynn’s hand.

“Alright, let’s go!”

“Let’s hope future you is better at instructions this time”, he cracks and gives Lucy a coy smile as the lifeboat powers up and jumps.

 

The sound of the lifeboat jumping wakes up the bunker. Wyatt sprints out of his room with a heavy feeling in his stomach, a reminder of when Jessica made off, kidnapping Jiya. Running past Lucy and Flynn’s room he notices it empty.

“No, NO!” Wyatt screams.

He runs into the main area and sees Connor and Jiya standing in the kitchen. Jiya has a note in her hands.

“They’re gone, Wyatt” Jiya tells him, shocked.

“What? No..they can’t…” Wyatt sputters in disbelief.

 

_Team,_

_If you are reading this note, we are already gone. I’m sorry that we didn’t say anything, but we knew that if you knew of our plan you would stop us. I knew when I saw my future self yesterday, that this was the only possible solution. This entire mess was the work of my family and I’m ready to embrace my destiny: to save Rufus, to end Rittenhouse, to protect the past, and save the future. Although you will forget us, Flynn and I will never forget you. Make your lives count, live and love to the fullest._

_Love,_

_Lucy Preston_

The lifeboat violently shakes to a halt. Flynn and Lucy feeling incredibly nauseous and fight to find their footing as they exit the lifeboat. They walk to the street and hail a cab.

“Houston Methodist Hospital, please” Flynn says to the driver and they make their way to the medical campus.

“My mother’s first husband, he passed in this hospital. Like Gabriel he has a deadly allergy, but his was to penicillin. It wasn’t in his chart and his doctor prescribed it to him, he had an anaphylactic reaction and died. If I find him and edit his chart, he’ll survive, my mother won’t be a widow, she’ll know to keep an epinephrine kit on hand, which she can use on Gabriel in 1969.” Flynn explained to Lucy as the cab pulled up to the hospital.

They paid and walked up to the door, sneaking in the doctor’s entrance to the ER and snatched some scrubs and a coat. Lucy dressed as a nurse walked up to the station, bluffing that she was a temp she found the room number for Walter Thompkins.

“He’s on the 4th floor in the infection ICU,” Lucy reported as she and Flynn made their way to Walter’s room. When they arrived in the hospital room, Flynn recognized his mother sitting on a chair in the room sitting vigil over her husband.

“Are you our new doctor? Walter was just transferred here to treat for an infection. We are waiting on the doctor so he can start him on antibiotics to fight his infection.” Maria explained.

Flynn stuttered at first, “Um...yes, ma’am I am Dr. Luka Kovać, let me take a look at his chart here.” Flynn took a pen looking for the line for known allergies and scribbled in penicillin.

“Yes, ma’am, it says here that your husband is allergic to penicillin, did you know that?”

Maria looked at him concerned, “No, I had no idea.”

Flynn cleared his throat, “No problem ma’am, when my associate comes in make sure you mention it. We don’t want Mr. Thompkins here having an adverse reaction. You should also be sure to have epinephrine kits on hand just in case anything happens. Do you have children?”

“Um, yes doctor, we have a son” Maria replied.

“Well, we often see that if one parent has a severe allergy that children may have a severe allergy too, so make sure to always keep that kit handy in case your son is allergic to something as well. Tell this to my associate and he will make sure to get you the prescription,” Flynn bluffed.

Maria stared at him taking in all the information, “O…ok, Doctor.”

With that Flynn turned on his heel and left. As he exited the hospital room, he ran into the ICU attending approaching Walter Thompkins’s room.

“Excuse me, who are you?” the ICU attending asked.

“Um, Dr. Kovać, Mr. Thompkins’s primary care physician. He has a severe penicillin allergy, please be aware of this and if you can set his wife up with an epinephrine kit, that would be very helpful.” Flynn said, hoping not to blow his cover.

“Oh, yes. Thank you Dr. Kovać.”

Flynn nodded and he and Lucy darted into the stairwell as soon as the attending entered Walter’s room. “Let’s get out of here, one more stop and all of this is over.”

Lucy put her hand in Flynn’s as they made their way out of the hospital and back to the lifeboat.

 

Again, the lifeboat rattled to a stop with the nausea and disorientation affecting them far less this time. Flynn looked over his shoulder, letting his gaze settle over Lucy. Her eyes were closed and her lips were moving, as if she were silently talking herself into something. Flynn undid his restraints, got out of his chair and knelt in front of her.

“Lucy, I can do this for you. I can take care of John Rittenhouse, killing a 10-year old boy would just be one more thing on the list of my sins.”

Lucy reached up and touched Flynn’s face.

“No. No, Garcia. You have been carrying my sins for far too long. I gave you that journal, I set you on this path. This isn’t your fault, this isn’t your family. It’s my family, and they took your family. It’s not fair, I need to do this. I need to end this.”

Flynn looked at her sympathetically, taking a deep shaky breath. Lucy moved to undo her own restraints and Flynn rolled up on his heels reaching into the cargo container. He pulled out the stainless-steel case containing his gun and silencer. Pressing the release, he dropped the magazine, Flynn spoke as he loaded the weapon.

“You know where the safety is on this? I know its small, but it will kick more than you expect…”

“Garcia, this isn’t my first time. I shot a man, when my mother...when she kidnapped me, oh...and I also killed Jesse James.”

Flynn looked up at her, with concern. She shouldn’t have had to do these things. Yes, she was impressive and she had evolved into one hell of a warrior. But she shouldn’t have to carry the emotional baggage of ending another life. Flynn knew, more than anyone, how much that could weigh on a person.

“Hey, we need to get going, I want to be in town before it gets dark and just get this over with.”

Flynn stood and offered his hand, helping her out of her seat. He then tucked the gun into the holster and secured it in Lucy’s belt. She felt his hands on her waist as he positioned the holster and it caused her to inhale. Flynn looked down at her with darkened eyes and she looked at him with a hardened expression, placing a hand on his chest.

“Let’s go”

Flynn nodded and they exited the lifeboat.

 

They were lucky to be able to find horses at a stable, not too far from where the lifeboat was parked. They didn’t even bother with period clothing as they did not intend to be here long or to stop and chat with anyone from the past. By 17:00, the approached the house of John Rittenhouse’s guardian. It was an hour from dusk and the boy was in the backyard throwing pebbles at ducks.

“That’s him.” Flynn confirmed.

Lucy’s hands shook as she untucked the gun from her holster and attached the silencer. Flynn placed his hand on her arm and she looked up at him determined. Lucy nodded and marched over to behind John Rittenhouse, aimed the gun, and unceremoniously pulled the trigger. The boy never realized she was behind her. As he slumped to the ground Lucy stood there stunned. Flynn waited a beat hoping she would turn back and start walking towards the horse but she didn’t. Her arm fell to her side and she dropped the gun, in shock of the atrocity she just committed. Flynn panicked and ran over to her. Noticing that she was in shock he picked up the gun put it back in its holster, grabbed Lucy by the waist, rushing to get her back to his horse before anyone could find the bloody mess in the backyard.  As he loaded her on the horse he heard a woman call out into the yard. He mounted the horse quickly and rode away to the life boat as fast as the animal could take her.

 

When they got back to the lifeboat, Lucy was still in shock. Flynn loaded her into the time machine and as he got her into her seat, he heard her shakily say his name.

“Flynn?…..Garcia….?”

He took her into his arms, just like he did in the Chinatown alleyway.

“Shh…Lucy…shhh…it’s all over, draga”

Flynn just held her there as she sobbed.

After about 20 minutes, Lucy finally started to calm. She looked up at him with swollen eyes.

Flynn brushed her hair out of her face.

“What do we do now, Garcia?” Lucy managed.

Flynn sighed, “Well I know a guy from when I was in the CIA. He’s not owned by anyone, he makes passports, IDs, Social Security cards. He can make us identities, you can be anyone that you want. I mean we erased ourselves from history, I’m no longer a terrorist, your father is no longer in jail…we could even just be ourselves.”

Lucy cracked a half smile and wiped the tears from her eyes, “I’d like that.”

“Ok, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Flynn helped Lucy back into her seat and with her restraints. Pushed her hair out of her face again and gave her a soft kiss. Lucy closed her eyes and gave him a look of calm and content, just happy that that this entire nightmare is over. Flynn got up and sat back in his seat, buckled his restraints and set the lifeboat on course for the present.

 

When they arrived to the present, they weren’t exactly sure what they would find. Upon opening the hatch to the lifeboat, they found they were in the bunker. However, there wasn’t any evidence that anyone had been there in years. It was bare and deserted. Flynn helped Lucy out of the lifeboat and she roamed around taking in how abandoned their former home now was. In Wyatt’s room, there was a cot with no mattress. In Lucy and Flynn’s room, an empty ammunition case. They walked down the long hallway to the door to the outside and paused for a minute.

Flynn looked down at her, “ready?”

Lucy put her hand in Flynn’s, opened the door and the both stepped outside to their new future.

 

 

\------------Epilogue-------------

The rest of the time team went on to happy lives. Free from whatever interference that Rittenhouse has inflicted. Wyatt and Jessica had a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house in Plano, TX. Wyatt was in the Army Reserves and Jessica had given birth to twins. Agent Christopher and Michelle lived in a beautiful home in Silver Spring, MD. Denise still worked for Homeland Security and was a decorated agent. Jiya and Rufus lived in an apartment in Mountian View, CA. Jiya was hired at Apple after an internship at Mason Industries while Wyatt still worked for Connor and was a team lead on AI projects. Emma Whitmore was a waitress in Omaha, NE. She and her mother had left their home when she was 10 and worked two jobs to help keep them afloat. Everyone was better off and this satisfied Flynn and Lucy, as they knew they made the right decision. Protecting the Past, Present and Future from Rittenhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
